NEWS FLASH: Drought ends at Ponderosa

Two possibilities, the great Dodge City fault line, or there may have been a drain tile or irrigation ditch there at one time. Could be the gopher from Caddy Shack!
 
I will guess a fisher from dry cracking in the soil !!!!
 
It is the tail water end of the flood irrigated field so no ditches ever here. BTW the field has not been irrigated for a number of years. Actually a person can follow an indention from the bank of the drainage for quite a ways. The south one is maybe fifty to sixty yards long right to that dead cedar. The cedar tree in the tree row is one of many that have died during this drought.

I found the trenches when mowing with the bat wing mower. A guy has to watch because in some places you could drop you truck wheel in and be high centered.

The soil tech said he had seen this in Kearny County(Lakin), but never Ford County.

My soil is a silt loam BTW.
 
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Horizontal saturation across the hard pan
.....which in turn dissolved a calcium carbonate deposit. Creating or reforming a preexisting playa.
 
During the drought over the last three years we found the soil to be baked about like pottery. When digging post holes we could only dig a few inches deep, then decided to add water to soften the hole. That did not work. We could fill the hole with water and come back hours later and the hole would still be full of water.

Where these trenches have occurred I am there everyday. There was no visible evidence of any cracks or fissures in the ground prior to the standing water. Take the south one with the dead cedar. I think below the surface there was a fissure going really deep, maybe ten feet of more, going from the cedar about sixty yards to the bank of the drainage. The sides of this fissure were hardened off like pottery. The backwater flooded the area and as the water receded the path was to channel through the fissure to the drainage and that caused the top soil to fall into the fissure. It would be like a fissure in solid rock rather than normal silt loam soil that normally would swell and seal off. That is my theory.
 
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Hope you get some. The winter wheat is lush here. Almost high ankle in some fields. They may have to turn some cattle on it if it gets too high. It may be already there. It was 54 here and my brother said it was 90 in Wichita. Rained all day here as well. Looking like a fall harvest for you guy's.:thumbsup:
 
Top has been bone dry until now. Most around have dusted in the wheat. This rain should bring it up.
 
Received an 1.30" Friday night. One great looking fall, beautiful milo crops, moisture for wheat, minus one important item--birds.:(
 
ok, so including the snow today...what was your moisture total for 2013 Maynard?
and how does the winter wheat look?
 
Maynard,
That's a good start at moving to better day's to come. Let's pray for a wet winter:10sign:
 
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